TV Workshop
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These photos are a little difficult to distinguish, because they are from a catalog that is over 50 years old. They are from a school that had its studios on 57th Street and Broadway. The name of the school was the Television Workshop. It was in business at a time when the television industry was exploding out of sight.
I believe they received some seed money from the networks, because of the enormous need for trained operators of the television equipment of the day.
The Director of the school was Irwin Shane, he recruited many of the top people from the various nets. If you can make out some of the pictures on the Instructors page you will note that there were at least three from CBS.
Ray Abel
Mordi Gassner
Harold Sobolov
As a matter of fact the daughter of Harold Sobolov is now in tech. management. Having worked her way from the Food Services department.
That is a Quantum leap, had it been in the days that most of us matured through.
On the cover of the brochure is a photo of George Moses on camera. And in the center fold of the studio and control room, is a picture of George and myself on the camera doing a setup, which was quite an involved procedure in that time.
On the studio handheld mic; is Harold Tarowski who went on to become a supervisor of the transmitter.
The course was 450 hours in duration, and it cost $500. It was well worth it.
For me to attend at that time (1949) I worked as a truck driver for a house wares company that made deliveries in all the boroughs of New York.
There were times, that for me to make class, I had to park on Broadway, climb into the back of the truck, and change clothes that were more suitable for class. Today, you can attend class wearing dungarees that hang down from the center of your crotch.
I mention this bio for those that are gathering information to chronicle the growth of the industry, for posterity's sake.
Tony Cucurullo
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Page last updated: February 15, 2003 by D. Minott
